April 3rd Bond Info

What is the plan?
Our facility plan calls for a number of improvements in both buildings. The first priority in the plan is to build new offices at the front of the building allowing for better safety and security in each building. This improvement would require all visitors to move through a double door vestibule and check in with office staff before proceeding to anywhere else in the building. For many years, our offices have been tucked into the interior of our building allowing visitors to bypass office security. Over time, this has created a significant security risk for Central Lee.

The master facility plan also delivers on a new performance/competition gym at the high school. This would increase seating capacity and gym square footage to better accommodate the events we currently hold and allow for new events to be hosted by the district. New locker room and a new weight room will complement the new gym as well.

The high school would receive upgrades with replacing an unused wrestling room on the north wing of the building into a new Ag/FFA center with two full classrooms. The south side of our current gym would be expanded to a new fine arts center including classrooms for high school band and vocal. The plan also includes improvements for our Family Consumer Science classes and a more functional and spacious commons/cafeteria space for our students.
The K-8 would renovate the old office space into our early childhood center including two large classrooms for our four-year-old preschool. Adding a designated early childhood space would provide the elementary would sufficient classroom space for five sections of kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade if needed and four sections of 3rd, 4th and 5th grade.

Lastly, the plan calls for improvements in traffic flow and additional parking at both the high school and K-8 building. This would include a bus lane entering into and exiting the high school parking lot. The traffic flow could provide a second point of entry into the district pending Iowa DOT approval.

What was the process for determining the plan?

In the Fall of 2017, the district put together a Facility Advisory Committee to determine facility improvement priorities for the district. The team was made up of 15 individuals representing staff, parents, community members, and geographic locations of the district. The team met several times during the Fall and also held a community event to gather input from community members. In December, the Facility Advisory Committee made a recommendation to the board on what they felt was the best direction for the district with improving facilities.

What will this cost? The total budget will be $13,300,000.

How will we fund this? We are asking voters to approve a $9.8 million dollar general obligation bond as part of our funding model. An additional $3.3 million will be generated by bonding against our current sales tax revenue. The remaining $200,000 will come from our current sales tax budget.

What will be the tax impact? Over the next five years, the district property tax levy will increase by $1.84 for fiscal year 2018-2019. After 2019, the tax rate impact will decrease to approx. $1.50 by 2023. The district would have the authority to raise it by $2.70 over through 2039. The district hopes to minimize tax increases by reducing our management fund and being conservative with our cash reserve levy over the next several years.

If you own a home with an assessed taxable value of $100,000 the tax impact of $1.84 increase in property taxes is $98 per year.

There will be no impact on property taxes with the sales tax bond.

If approved, what does the timeline look like for construction? The district would need to go through the official design process, create construction documents, bid the project, and accept bids before breaking ground. While some phases may be completed sooner, the full project will be complete by the start of the 2020-2021 school year.